Economy

Taiwan's monetary authority on Thursday kept its key interest rates unchanged for the 11th straight quarter while lowering its forecast for the island's gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2019.

The monetary authority said it would maintain the discount rate at the existing level of 1.37 percent, the rate on accommodations with collateral at 1.75 percent and the rate on accommodations without collateral at 3.62 percent.

Yang Chin-Long, head of the monetary authority, said policymakers would continue a moderately loose monetary policy, and future adjustment would depend on inflationary levels and whether such adjustment is positive in supporting the economy with full employment.

Yang said structural economic issues were behind the low interest rates in Taiwan, stressing expansionary fiscal policy could only boost short-term economic growth but cannot solve the problem in the long run without structural adjustment.

At its quarterly meeting, monetary policymakers also lowered Taiwan's GDP forecast for 2019 by 0.2 percentage points to 2.13 percent from its previous projection in December 2018, citing lower domestic demand, trade conflicts and restructuring of global supply chains. Enditem